Kanektok River Alaska

A little over a month ago a couple of us forum members, allowed we were headed north to Alaska's Kanektok river for going after Kings. I have not read a report from the other fellow who was a week earlier than myself.

The Kanektok is about 400 miles west of Anchorage and about ninety miles south of Bethel. My efforts were through Alaska West operating a tent camp and this was a featured Spey week with Dec Hogan in attendance along with Ed Ward. This week included Spey casting clinics and if lucky enough, time with one of the big names. My King's fishing hardware included a Sage VT-2 9144 (also carried a Mieser MKS but that became disabled the first day) equipped with a Lamson LiteSpeed 4 throwing the Skagit system while using a 13' T-14. The marabou flies (purple or green) were provided by the camp.

An interesting sidelight is discovery by the British, we had about a dozen of them in camp and a few of them were staying in Alaska the following week to hit yet another camp. Understand even more of them were expected in a week or such. Our declining dollar to the pound is making it attractive for them to venture our way for fishing.

My week, and I heard the previous week, were slow for Kings, I managed but five Kings in six days. My largest being 38" in length. At the same time, the Sockeye were in fantastic abundance, perhaps the greatest run witnessed by many of the guides. Strange to be knee deep in the river casting with Sockeye's streaming by either side of you. Of course, fishing in Alaska is different from our local situation as I have also witnessed this with Dollies in those waters.

It was, in spite of limited King production, a great week having caught King's, Sockeye, Dollies, and, Leopard Rainbow. The hopefully attached image do not include myself with 'hero' photos, need to travel with competent camera buffs.

Interesting report! I noticed last fall in Alaska the same situation, as the were more anglers from Europe than the USA. We must be working too hard to make money that is worth less? Anyway looked like a great experience that I would like to try sometime.

I fished the Kanektok the week of July 16th with Alaska West (sounds like the week after you). Caught two Kings on the fly (Sage VT2 990-4 rod), one of them 30+ lbs took about 30 minutes to land! Also caught Chum, Sockeye, Rainbow, Dolly and Grayling. I caught more fish in three days than I caught in the last three years! The Alaska West guys did a great job.

My buddy Craig caught a 28" rainbow with a 15.5" girth literally on the final cast of the last day. Largest Rainbow trout I have ever seen!

The Overlake Fly Fishing Club is trying to finalize their plans for 3 trips to Alaska this year… We've got two trips in June to the Alagnak, and one trip to the Kanektok in August. The August trip is almost full, but we still have a couple of openings on all of the trips. These are club sponsored trips being offered by the Overlake Fly Fishing Club at a lower cost than is normally done, since some of the costs can be reduced, being offered by the club. We will have two Past Presidents, and one vice president doing the guiding and rowing (Joe and John Kristoff, and Dicl Lange). The first trip in June on the Alagnak is a little longer (12 days on the water) than the second, and therefor we can lower the price on the second trip. Here are the costs of the trips, and the dates. If you ever wanted to go to a river where you have a good chance at catching a 10 pound rainbow and a 15 pound lake trout on a fly, the Alagnak is the trip you want to go on. If you want to go on a trip where the silvers are abundant, and the rainbow fishing is great - especially for the Leopard Rainbows, then the Kanektok river is the trip for you.

The price for club members is the number after the C… If you wanted to go as a club member, you will need to send a membership application and the cost of membership to the OFFC. If you are interested in going as a club member, contact Dick Lange (akflyfisher) immediately, and he can help set you up.

If you have any interest in joining John, Joe and Dick this year, please let us know as soon as you can. If we keep our costs down, we might be able to bring the Kanektok trip in under $3000, and we will refund any money that is left after our trip expenses are covered.

This year is going to be another great year for the Alagnak, with a near record run of spawning salmon, and a really cold winter - the fish entered the fall fat, and had a lot to eat with all the eggs and flesh floating down the river this winter. With a cold winter - ice will come off the lake late, which means the fingerlings will not have started their run before we get their, so the fish will be very aggressive when it comes to finding food - and flies….

The Kanektok had a bad storm roar thru last August, and even though the water went up a foot, it did relatively little damage to the spawning beds. The river had a great silver run 3 years ago, so they are expecting a large number of silvers coming back this year. Joe's fly, the Silver Slayer, is one of the best silver flies we have ever fished with. The last four days on the river will be aimed at the silvers, while the first 8 days will be aimed at the Kanektok River's Leopard Rainbows, and its huge run of Arctic Char that will be in the river - from the confluence of the Klak, on down. They aggresively go for egg flies…

Come on up and join us this year. It’s a trip you won't forget. We'll fish till we drop, eat well, and we won't have to lie about the size of our fish. We'll take pictures and leave footprints and be dazzled by the beauty of our surroundings and the fish we will catch as we float quietly down the river, in search of wild rainbows...